Trump’s virus briefing devolves into personal attacks on media amidst excuses, blame, and falsehoods
After a blissful Easter weekend in which Donald Trump avoided holding any of his campaign propaganda sessions disguised as press briefings on both Saturday and Sunday last week, the weekend misinformation sessions returned today with a vengeance.
While it is difficult to sit through Trump’s transparently self-interested monologues consisting of political grievances, blame-casting, and the distracting spin he uses to excuse his administration’s ongoing multiple failures to properly address the pandemic — one that could have had much less severe consequences were it not for the president’s slug-like response — the indefatigable reporters who’ve been live-tweeting the president’s briefings every day somehow managed to churn out the lowlights of Trump’s repulsive rants without throwing their computers out the window and screaming “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” ala the news anchor character Howard Beale in the 1975 film classic Network.
While Aaron Rupar of Vox and CNN‘s fact-checking specialist Daniel Dale may have been quietly replaying that scene in their minds, no reports of flying electronic equipment crashing through glass have made the news, so we can assume that both made it through today’s absurdities without having to place emergency replacement computer orders.
Through both Dale’s text-based descriptions of the president’s remarks and Rupar’s commentary based on video excerpts proving that Trump actually said that thing that made you shake your head in disbelief, one can get a fairly complete picture of the true derangement on display at these bogus campaign rallies that one must sit through in order to hear the latest statistics from the few scientific voices allowed to get any factual words in edgewise, when not interrupted or prompted by presidential asides.
Here’s a taste of today’s extravaganza:
Trump begins at the briefing by touting "very positive trends, for winning." He says we are mourning the loss of life, and "you can't mourn it any stronger than we're mourning it." He bashes "fake news."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Trump is repeating his vague claims that the US testing system is great and better than those of other countries, that the US system used to be somehow obsolete, and that other leaders, whom he's never named, are asking him what to do about testing.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
The Vox correspondent provides the relevant footage illustrating Dale’s descriptions.
Trump attacks media for reporting stats indicating US has more coronavirus deaths than China: "China's number 1. Just so you understand. China is number 1 by a lot. They are way ahead of us in terms of death. It is not even close. You know it, I know it, they know it." pic.twitter.com/X06QJvfimH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
Trump continued to ramble on spouting unverified accusations against China before declaring his victory over the ventilators he now claims to be under his soveriegnity.
Trump: "We're the king of ventilators."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Trump on testing: "I inherited broken junk."
There was no inherited test for the novel coronavirus.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
TRUMP: "You have all been reading about the disproportionate numbers on African-American." pic.twitter.com/0Mjv7WsCbE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
"Good job out there" — Trump throws shade at his staff because of an alleged typo in his remarks pic.twitter.com/ooNe4xlHLM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
If the deadly seriousness of the pandemic wasn’t weighing so heavily on the entire nation, Trump’s attempts to blame Democrats of politicizing his administration’s incompetence in dealing with the crisis in the middle of his finger-pointing blame-game would be truly chortle-heavy laughable.
"We started off with a broken system. We inherited a broken, terrible system. And I always say it — our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile": Trump tries to blame Obama, who left office in 2017, for a virus that reached the US in 2020 pic.twitter.com/YwMSPkjmw8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
Trump on testing: "I inherited broken junk."
There was no inherited test for the novel coronavirus.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Trump talks about governors' early requests in this kind of tone: "Oh, 'Hospital beds, hospital beds.'"
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
"We loaded up hospitals…we weren't worried about payment at that time. We said, 'You'll take care of it at the right time.'" …Goods and medicines and equipment…and we'll work it out with them…"
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Trump criticizes the "phony deal" that was the "Russia witch hunt."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Yes, politicizing testing at this time is reprehensible according to the president, but Trump spends the majority of his free campaign ad attacking Democrats, state governors, and the press.
TRUMP: "The big V for victory, or V for ventilator. Take a look at it. Everybody said they had us on that. But we got 'em done at numbers nobody would've believed." pic.twitter.com/9ZamblP4dN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
Well, any number spilling out of Trump’s mouth is by definition a number that nobody should have believed. The president’s recollection of dates is equally suspect.
Trump: "We're only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem."
"Everybody" is vague, but it is very much untrue that it wasn't widely known until late March that the coronavirus was a big problem.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
It seems that the “everybody” that Trump refers to likely refers to himself, given that he was still golfing and holding rallies in February despite having been told by intelligence agencies AS EARLY AS LAST NOVEMBER that the coronavirus could turn into a life-changing pandemic.
Trump’s apparent loathing for the First Amendment became quite clear as he launched into a long rant against the press that refuses to simply accept his constant falsehoods as the truth, singling out particular venom for Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, who we hope has been provided with a security detail to protect her from right-wing lunatics potentially inspired to violence by the president’s personal attacks on her character.
Trump: Some of the media has been very honest but some very dishonest. He says Maggie Haberman and others should give back their Pulitzer prizes for their Russia coverage.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
Here is the conclusion of one of the most unhinged and bizarre rants I have ever heard Trump go on. Keep in mind this is a press briefing about a pandemic that is killing over 1,000 Americans each day right now. pic.twitter.com/3PGe9MsOQb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
Here is the conclusion of one of the most unhinged and bizarre rants I have ever heard Trump go on. Keep in mind this is a press briefing about a pandemic that is killing over 1,000 Americans each day right now. pic.twitter.com/3PGe9MsOQb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
The president has a complicated relationship with crying. https://t.co/UWCcGETAqX
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
When Trump finally stopped his monologue to allow the Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx to speak, he still refused to shut up, interrupting the patiently suffering physician’s presentation with comments from the sidelines.
"We saw more bags [i.e. bodybags] on television than that" — Trump interrupts Birx to question the number of coronavirus deaths reported by a number of countries (his implication is that the US hasn't really been hit as hard relatively speaking as the numbers indicate) pic.twitter.com/DLaTm3S6fI
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
Trump’s usually contentious question and answer battle with reporters was no less bellicose than usual, although one longs for one brave White House correspondent to replicate the action an Iraqi journalist took with President G.W. Bush at the 2008 press conference where the then-president was narrowly missed by thrown shoes in the ultimate sign of middle-eastern disrespect.
Trump attacks the media for not reporting what he thinks are the correct number of coronavirus deaths in China, even though his own government health agencies are citing the same number. pic.twitter.com/ykS1ucDFZY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
"Keeping reading your question" — Trump tries to humiliate a reporter from Talk Media News because he didn't like his question pic.twitter.com/AsnOLv4DRN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
The reporter is noting that Trump himself has issued distancing guidelines and asking Trump whether Moore and company aren't actually protesting Trump's own advice. He is not engaging directly.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020
While there are plenty more examples of Trump’s outright lies, evasiveness, and both offensive and defensive political posturing at today’s press briefing that we could include here, we’ll direct you to the full Twitter threads of the esteemed Mr. Rupar and Mr. Dale to read the rest, or, if you have the stomach for it, you can watch the entire press conference at C-Span’s website.
Before we go to our own window to shout out our frustrations with this COVID-19 fever-induced nightmare of a president, we’ll leave you with a concluding gem from Vox‘s Mr. Rupar’s video blog of the event.
I don't know how anybody can watch what I just saw and not be profoundly disturbed by the mental state of the President of the United States
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020
We did. We are. And we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.
See you at the polls in November, if we can survive this madness until then.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Daniel Dale at CNN and Aaron Rupar at Vox.
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